Many food products and especially those from which extracts are made to produce beverages, are known to contain a delicate balance of both flavor- and aroma-bearing essences. This delicate balance of flavor- and aroma-bearing essences, naturally present in some food products typically gives a sensory impression of a very pleasing balance of flavor and aroma at first. However, it is very common these types of foods to rapidly develop a rancid aroma after being subjected to atmospheric conditions for a short period of time. This rapidly developing rancidity in the aroma essences often significantly impairs the beverage flavor of any beverage isolated and produced from extracts of the food product. Moreover, the compounds contributing aroma rancidity often act as catalytic agents for the rapid development of rancidity in the beverage flavor components. Therefore, while certain of the highly volatile aroma-bearing essences are extremely desirable from the standpoint of presenting a pleasing initial sensory impact, they are undesirable in the long run from the standpoint of contributing to rapid development of aroma as well as flavor rancidity.
Certain of these well known food products such as coffee, tea, and some well known fruits such as oranges, grapes, strawberries, cherries, and the like, are often processed by extraction methods to obtain concentrated extracts which can either be dried or diluted to prepare beverages. Typically, during processing to obtain extracts, the previously referred to delicate balance of aroma-bearing essences and flavor-bearing essences is upset by subjection to heat and pressure conditions necessary for an efficient extraction process. Thus, the ultimate beverage extract or dried material contains a quite different balance of flavor- and aroma-bearing essences than did the initial food product. For many years, those skilled in the art have approached this problem by attempting to remove the aroma-bearing essences from the natural food product prior to extraction, and thereafter add the aroma-bearing essences back after the extraction procedure. In other words, the aroma essences are removed, the remaining portion is subjected to the necessary temperature and pressure conditions suitable for high extraction yields, and subsequently the aroma-bearing essences are added back. While this process has met with a large degree of success, especially in regard to coffee and tea production, it has certain inherent disadvantages. First, the aroma-bearing essences after adding back to the resulting extract are themselves often subjected to conditions during drying which bring about a substantial impairment in the flavors and aromas they produce. Secondly, the extract remaining after removal of aroma-bearing essences contains a number of natural flavor-bearing essences which are significantly impaired and changed to create unnatural flavors during the high pressure and high temperature conditions needed for the most efficient extraction.
It has now been discovered that the natural balance of aroma and flavor essences can be retained in resulting extracts by utilizing the process of this invention. In particular, the flavor-bearing essences can be separated from the aroma-bearing essences such that the resulting liquid concentrate which comprises substantially only the flavor-bearing essences is not subjected to rapid rancidity caused by incorporation of highly volatile aroma essences therein. Alternatively, a dry stable product containing both aroma and flavor essences can be prepared.
An object of this invention is to separate aroma and flavor-bearing essences from food substrates which typically contain aroma- and flavor-bearing essences such that the most volatile aroma essences do not contribute to the rapid development of rancidity in beverages produced from the food product.
It is another object of this invention to form a liquid flavor concentrate which is substantially free from highly volatile aroma-bearing essences which could, if present, rapidly develop rancidity in the resulting concentrate.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a condensed aroma-bearing essence which, if desired, can be added back to liquid extracts or dried products resulting therefrom to provide a pleasing aroma enhancement.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a stable dry product having improved aroma and flavor properties.
These and other objects will become apparent from the following description of the invention.